This dissertation examined the rhetorical dynamics of expertise around a manufactured science-based controversy. Using the ongoing debate surrounding vaccine-induced autism as a case study, this work explored the persuasive ...

This dissertation explored the communicative means through which a social movement might connect its identity and goals with the national identity. It focused on invocations of the nation by Tea Party activists and in news ...

Media coverage of suicide can play a pivotal role in raising public awareness of an important public health issue. But research suggests that reporting on suicide can potentially influence vulnerable individuals to emulate ...

Civil liberties were under attack in the United States well before Senator Joseph R. McCarthy strode to a West Virginia microphone in February 1950 and began the tumult that would be known as McCarthyism. State investigations ...

This dissertation examined how men and women candidates constructed their online self- presentations when running for U.S. Senate in 2012, and how such self-presentations impacted the public's perceptions of the candidates. ...

During World War I, editions of five Irish-American newspapers were banned from the mails by the United States Post Office. One newspaper and a magazine were forced out of business.These actions were ostensibly taken in ...

This dissertation examines the idea of American exceptionalism from both production and effects perspectives. First, it identifies the distinct ways that U.S. presidents have articulated this idea in major domestic and ...